Zoo Crew

This week for a fun activity, we met up with our playgroup friends at the Richmond Metro Zoo! When I told Claire we were going to the zoo, she was SO excited and kept saying we were going to see animals. (She was particularly excited about "going to see chickens" but I told her they probably didn't have chickens!)

She was very interested in the monkeys and probably would have stayed there all day.


"Giving treats" to the farm animals in the petting zoo section.

She loves peacocks!! She told me many times that peacocks are loud, but this one never made a sound or showed it's feathers.

My favorite was the giraffes! I was proud of Claire - she was brave and held out her hand to feed them. Of course, I never captured that on film.

Payback

Is this the "Dreaded Terrible Two's" a couple months early?? Maybe teething? Or is this just Claire paying us back for leaving her last week?? We don't know what's happened to our sweet little girl, but for the past few days she has been SO miserable.

Even though she had a blast with Mimi and Papa (and never seemed to miss us at all) I think she is having seperation anxiety issues! The worst has been naptime and bedtime battles. She doesn't want to be left alone and will cry for over an hour after we leave the room. It breaks my heart, but I'm just hoping this passes soon!! (Not to mention, due to being so tired she is having major meltdowns, tantrums, and overall crabbiness!)

Today's naptime was actually better than the past couple days - the sobbing started at lunchtime all the way through putting her in the crib. But after only 15 minutes of wailing (while I called my Mom asking for advice!) she finally gave up. I opened the door to her room to check on her and found her asleep, but sitting up, with her head bobbing up and down and swaying side to side. I went to get the video camera and when I came back, she had finally just doubled over and gone to sleep for good.

Meanwhile, Back at Home...

While Rob and I were away, Claire stayed with Mimi and Papa for the week and she had a BLAST! I think she stayed so busy, she didn't have a chance to miss us. Their week was packed with all kinds of fun activities...

Playing at Kangaroo Jac's in the big kid area (apparently she had no interest in the little kid area)

They made several trips to Lewis Ginter to see the butterflies, play in the water, and climb to the top of the treehouse

One night they all went to Burger King for dinner. Looks like Claire had alot of fun playing there!

Claire had her own pool in the backyard to play in....she enjoyed it for the first couple days until the "June bugs" came. She's still telling me about the June bugs!

Uncle Andy and Aunt Tara made a couple trips to visit during the week. When I ask Claire about this picture she says "Uncle Andy and Aunt Tara have snacks"

Crump park has a really fun playground right down the street from Mimi and Papa's house.

She got to play on this train AND she saw a real train which she will tell me "people get on and off"


After naptime, Claire liked to play in Mimi's toy closet. So many fun things!

As you can see....by naptime or bedtime, Claire was wiped out!

I think Claire had just as much fun as Rob and I did! What a great week!

Recuerdos de Mexico

Rob and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary with a trip to Mexico! We had the most wonderful time at the Valentin Imperial Maya. Delicious food, a gorgeous beach, beautiful resort and room.....what else could we ask for? We missed our baby girl of course, but we knew she was having a ball with Mimi and Papa and we had nothing to worry about. Thanks to my sisters-in-law for the email updates - I've never gone that long without seeing Claire, but your updates helped so much!



Here's a montage of photos from our trip. (Sorry, no Claire pics in this post!)

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Family Shower for Matt and Alison!

We are so excited about our soon-to-be neice/cousin who will arrive in about a month! Yesterday we celebrated with the whole family and had a baby shower for Aunt Alison and Uncle Matt. It was a really special day and I cannot WAIT for this little girl to get here already! Only 1 month to go...
Here's Claire dressed and ready to see everyone! Her dress was a gift and I was so excited to have the perfect occasion to wear it!


And here's the Mommy-To-Be with her awesome cake, made by our cousin Caitlin!

Not everyone could make it, but we actually had about 30 people gathered together. It was so much fun to see everyone. Claire was pretty overwhelmed by it all, but I think she had fun! Here she is with her cousin Anne - they share the same birthday, 10 years apart!

Alison's cousin came with her 2 kids - what fun for Claire to have other kids around to play with!

After lunch, games, and catching up with the family, Alison and Matt opened all their loot! Here's Claire checking it out.

This morning when Claire woke up, she started naming people and I think she thought everyone was still here! Let's try to all see each other sometime again before Christmas!!

*Uncle Mike, Claire has been telling me all morning that you are "siwee" :-)

Lewis Ginter

One of Claire's favorite places this summer has been the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens. Mimi has a membership and they've gone several times. I joined them this week and it was so fun to see how much Claire remembered from the last time. As soon as we got there she started talking about the butterflies!

Then we put her bathing suit on and let her play!

From her favorite place in the treehouse, looking down for fish:


We ended our "girls day" with lunch at the cafe. Such a fun day!

Celebrating the 4th on the River!

Happy 4th of July!


For the first time in several years, we weren't able to go to my Aunt and Uncle's river house due to his work schedule, so this year we experienced the 4th on the Piankatank and had a great time! We came down Friday to join PoPa and Uncle Jake and had a relaxing day with a swim in the pool and an after-dinner cruise. Claire slept great in her own room...THANKS Jake for taking the couch :-) As soon as she woke up she was so excited to be at the river and kept asking for Jake!
Then on Saturday, Uncle Matt, Aunt Alison, Mimi, and Papa Jim joined us for another fun day on the river.

Claire all decked out in her red, white, and blue! (Thanks Alison and Matt for the shirt!!)

Just chillin' on the boat! Even though she doesn't like the wind in her face ("just wind!"), she LOVES going for boat rides. When I say get your life jacket, she runs to get it and I can barely get it on her before she's running out the door.

Claire at the head of the table with O-Matt and O-Jake. (Now that she's got first names down pretty good, I am trying to add on the "uncle" and "aunt" parts. So far it just sounds like "O." It's so cute and I kind of hope it sticks!)

No 4th of July is complete without a cookout - burgers, dogs, watermelon, pasta salad, etc. Yum!